Truth, lies, love and hate

It's Holy Week. The week before Jesus is crucified and dies to save man from his sins. 

“Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’” — John 18:37

"What is truth?” retorted Pilate. 

I've been thinking about truth. And I've been thinking about lies. I've been thinking about love. And I've been thinking about hate. Do we build up? Or do we tear down?

Joyce Arthur of the Abortion Rights Coalition, spends a lot of time writing letters and petitions to politicians, accusing other groups of hate. 

In just one ATIP, ARCC's letters (and ARCC's followers' comments) to the Finance department use the word 'hate' 47 times when speaking about these other groups. Arthur alleges that these groups are 'hate groups', and therefore should have their Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) funding revoked. That's a lot of pages of very serious allegations against groups who support the sanctity of life.

What is truth? A very important question indeed.

Federal employees get $75,000 to change genders, but not to change back

You may recall that Federal public servants can now get $75,000 to transition to a different gender.

So I asked the next logical question in an ATIP:

"I would like to see all briefing notes, emails, etc. that pertain to public servants who wish to detransition, and whether or not they will also receive this $75,000 benefit."

The answer is no:

"The gender affirmation benefit will not provide coverage for...reversal of gender affirmation procedures"

 And this:

"All procedures must me performed in Canada and considered medically necessary"

Reminds me of abortion, where they tell us that abortions are medically necessary when they never are.

So if you decide you made the biggest mistake of your life by changing genders in the first place, well that is not covered, because it is (presumably) not medically necessary. This is how we twist ourselves into pretzels trying to create our own truth.

When politicians make sense

I have come to the realization that most politicians say things that will either make me roll my eyes or cause me to yell at the computer/tv/radio when I hear them speak. This is especially true of one politician who shall remain nameless.

Of course there are some exceptions to this general principle I will call the trustworthy index of politicians, but the exception I am talking about today is MP Leslyn Lewis. 

I receive her emails every day. Even though I don't read them all (I've already decided I am voting for her), my husband does read them. He is forever telling me how thoughtful these emails are. That they make a whole lot of sense. They do. As far as I can make out, Dr. Lewis is very unlike other politicians. 

You can read yesterday's email here: It is about Faith and science. I've included Dr. Lewis's whole statement below. If you don't read the whole thing, please read the highlighted parts. 

This statement does not make me roll my eyes. It does not make me yell at my computer. It speaks the truth. From a politician. What a concept.

"Are you a person of faith?

Or are you a person of science?

Or maybe like me, you feel like those words don’t mean what they used to anymore.

Faith has been popularly defined as “the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.” This definition which is based on faith and a belief in God, has now been adopted by governments to get people to buy into policies.

In some cases when we are confronted with catastrophes, plagues or even a pandemic, we have to put our trust in a solution that may not have been fully tested or explained  — that’s faith.

Faith has often been confused with science. I am a social scientist, and stay away from making pronouncements in the area of natural science. But it isn’t hard to recognize that natural science has turned to beliefs that are also based on faith.

Claims like “trust the science” are actually displays of faith rather than confidence in the scientific method. The scientific method requires a hypothesis and rigorous testing. Science is not trusted, it is tested.

The past two years have been frustrating for those among us who like to ask questions in order to have a better understanding about what is going on around them. Questions were mocked, ridiculed, demonized and people were out-right silenced for asking simple questions about COVID or even vaccines. In my training as a lawyer whenever I encountered an aggressive, bullying person my instincts told me they were hiding something. Coercion always put me on alert that something wasn’t right.

At the beginning of the pandemic, we were all happy to “get vaccinated” in order to protect our neighbours, grandparents, and the vulnerable in society. Any scientist who spoke the truth that the COVID vaccine is a tool to reduce hospital burden by minimizing the symptoms - but it would not completely prevent contracting or spreading COVID - was vilified, de-platformed and ostracized as a dangerous  conspiracy theorist.

Canadians turned against their family members refusing to see them by falsely believing that vaccinated people were immune from getting COVID. Friends and coworkers yelled at colleagues to “GET VACCINATED”.  People threw down one of the major tenets of our medical system – privacy, and started divulging their vaccination status, even peer pressured into posting pictures of themselves getting vaccinated on social media. When you met someone for the first time, they often told you their vaccination status before they told you their name. And people like me were punished for insisting that we can be safe without violating the foundations of our democracy including the right to medical privacy and free and informed consent.

I accepted my punishment by not receiving a critic/shadow cabinet position even though all I had to do was simply disclose my vaccination status. I refused because I believe that my principles were worth more to me than any position. And as I watched the illogical madness around me, I refused to be dragged into a system headed for segregation and erosion of our fundamental values. I said “I will stand for my convictions — cost it what it may!"

The past few years have been based on faith, not in any deity, but in government. So many people never questioning information presented by both elected and unelected officials.

Government has seen how well this blind allegiance to faith works with policy. Now we must ask ourselves whether we will remain silent while our government:

• implements environmental policies that have little or no connection with reducing emissions;
• enters into international agreements that diminish our sovereignty, reduce farming capacity, and curtail the development of our natural resources; or
• implements health and vaccine passes that could easily be programmed to integrate with other aspects of our lives and encroach on things that we once thought personal. 

We need to end this style of government where politicians demand absolute trust and blind faith to their policies - while they demonize those who ask questions. We need to wake up and recognize that every time a politician labels something a conspiracy theory it’s often to avoid answering your question; and unfortunately, it’s often to hide the fact that they are outright lying to you!

It’s time we had politicians who showed a little faith in the people they are supposed to serve, and that requires that we end this era of intellectual darkness and blind faith and allegiance to the politicians and bureaucrats who underestimate our intelligence."

One group responds to the false allegations about the Summer Jobs Program

March 17, 2018

Attention: Ms. Pat Maloney, Ottawa

Thank you for drawing to our attention questions posted online by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) concerning our charity and Canada Summer Jobs grants (CSJ).

Let me answer each and every question from ARCC pertaining to our charity.

1. What does our organization do?

We are a faith-based charity providing help and resources for women experiencing unintended pregnancies, post abortion grief, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Over 27 years, we have helped 17,000 women. Our services are offered free of charge – a gift from the Lower Mainland wider church community.

Our primary outreaches:

1. Burnaby Safe House – residence for abused women
2. Crisis Pregnancy Centre – Vancouver and Burnaby
3. Post Abortion Community Services – 1:1, groups, retreats
4. Rape Victims Support Network – multi-agency consortium

2. Did our charity not report Canada Summer Jobs grants as income to CRA?

Please know we comply with all regulatory and filing requirements. We have a robust protocol regarding finances. Our on-site staff administrator is so designated. In addition, we contract ‘outside’ with a professional bookkeeper. And furthermore, at fiscal year-end we contract our financial statements and filings via a professional accounting firm.

I know that our administrator and bookkeeper do inform the accounting firm of any CSJ grants, as I am cc’d in this regard. Perhaps the accounting firm has made a line error? Please know I will investigate this matter asap with the accounting firm. And if they have in fact made a filing error, we will have this detail rectified.

3. Is the CSJ program being abused?

No. And there’s some irony here. First, we do not need an annual CSJ grant. Second, we do not need a summer student. Like many charities, we love to support this program which helps out university students. As you would know, charities do not ‘get’ the funds per se, but are a conduit for the student – they receive the funds. In fact, CSJ grants are only minimum wage, so our particular charity tops up the student’s wage.

4. What activities are these funds actually supporting?

I will give three example activities. (With non-identifying details for confidentiality.)

During the CSJ grant time-frame in question by ARCC, our activities included:

(1) Rescuing a woman, here from Southeast Asia, to escape from human trafficking.

(2) Housed for a one year period, a teenage refugee from the Central Africa, gang raped by a militia. Also heartbreaking, her family was slaughtered.

(3) Rescued a pregnant woman planning suicide, as her husband was coercing her to go to an abortion clinic. During her previous pregnancy, he ruthlessly beat her to purposely cause a successful miscarriage.

In this same time-frame raised by ARCC, we helped hundreds of other women: shelter from domestic abuse, pregnancy support services, after abortion care, and sexual assault counselling. Further, we provided aid for low income pregnant women, families, and refugees.   

5. What is the work experience benefit of these activities?

Work experience pertains to the provision of love/care/services/resources for women in crisis. Our summer students (as well as past practicum students) are usually pursuing degrees in social work, human services, counselling, and nursing.

Patricia, in addition to these five major ARCC questions, you also bring to our attention that this political group asks two additional questions about our CAS charity. We will answer those as well.

6. Was the $29.7 K [total of grants from 2011 to 2016] used to undermine sex ed?

No. Our Sexual Integrity material is evidence-based, and complies with sex education learning outcomes of the BC Health and Career Education curriculum. In our presentations, special emphasis is placed on helping teenagers see the value of developing meaningful, healthy relationships. 

We do not differentiate between heterosexual and same-sex relationships.

Topics: media influences, STIs, consensual sex, pornography, date rape, peer pressure, and more.

By invitation, we also provide trainings/presentations outside of Canada – affirming the worth and value of women, for children with imperfections, on healthy relationships, and consensual sex. Our most recent trainings were in Bhutan, India, Nepal, Mongolia, Korea, and Zambia.

7. ARCC implies online that we may oppose “trans rights” and the LGBTQ community.

Our charity is not political, we are pastoral. Unlike ARCC, we are non-discriminatory. ARCC as you know is quite vocal, mean-spirted, and judgemental towards people of faith, and towards people not necessarily espousing their ideology.

In contrast to what ARCC is surmising, the clients we are entrusted to serve come from all lifestyles, gender identities, and sexual orientation. Coincidentally, two of our most recent sexually abused clients are transgender people.

The following value statement is from our Commitment of Care and Competence:

“Clients are served without regard to race, colour, religion, creed, national origin, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, lifestyle or other arbitrary circumstances.”

Patricia, once again, thank you for bringing to our attention the questions/allegations made against our charity by ARCC. This group has the right to oppose (but sadly so) faith-based charities being permitted to hire/help summer students via the CSJ program. But certainly not the right to mischaracterize.

Let me conclude by informing you, that we have repeatedly asked ARCC to contact us if they ever have questions about the work of our charity. But alas, ARCC never does. And we don’t know why.

Sincerely,

Brian Norton | Executive Director

Christian Advocacy Society of Greater Vancouver

7879 Edmonds Street Burnaby BC V3N 1B9

T 604 525-0999 | F 604 525-2634

www.christianadvocacy.ca

CPCs pose threat to abortion cartel’s bloodthirsty cause

This is a very telling article on the pro-abortions' relentless attack on crisis pregnancy centres in the US. 

"... the abortion lobby has zero to show for its 40-year effort to expose pregnancy help centers as the hives of scum and villainy “they” would have us—or in many cases, legislators—believe. 

It’s not for lack of trying either. Every one of the 2,600 pregnancy help locations in the U.S. poses an immanent threat to the abortion cartel’s bloodthirsty cause. The abortion lobby is well aware of that fact, and has been fighting tooth and nail against pro-life alternatives to abortion ever since the late 1960s, as abortion was legalized at state levels prior to Roe v. Wade. 

In 2000, the nation’s leading abortion lobby group, NARAL Pro-Choice America, released a pamphlet entitled, “Unmasking Fake Clinics,” which has set the trajectory for every attack on pregnancy centers since. Periodically released national and state-level attacks (see examples here, here and here) have appeared ever since, rehearsing the same tired and baseless claims that uniformly fail to point out any wrongdoing on the part of a pregnancy center.

Just pro-lifers serving women with free, community-supported, life-affirming care. Nothing to see here. Thanks for stopping in, officer..."

Here in Canada we have our very own pro-abortions do their darnedest to do the same here in Canada. Read the whole article. Worth the read.

Sing a little louder - the holocaust of unborn children

I hope Joyce Arthur and "Fern Hill" watch this film.

https://vimeo.com/188304069

Pro-abortion people really hate it when we compare the slaughter of the unborn by abortion to the Holocaust. They hate it because they know it's the truth. And they really hate the truth.

Humility is truth

"...God must sometimes allow us to act on our own so we can learn humility, so we can learn the truth of our total dependence on him, so we can learn that all our actions are sustained by his grace and that without him we can do nothing—not even make our own mistakes.

Learning the full truth of our dependence upon God and our relation to his will is what the virtue of humility is all about. For humility is truth, the full truth, the truth that encompasses our relation to God the Creator and through him to the world he has created and to our fellowmen. And what we call humiliations are the trials by which our more complete grasp of this truth is tested.

It is self that is humiliated; there would be no "humiliation" if we had learned to put self in its place, to see ourselves in proper perspective before God and other men. And the stronger the ingredient of self develops in our lives, the more severe must our humiliations be in order to purify us. That was the terrible insight that dawned upon me in the cell at Lubianka as I prayed, shaken and dejected, after my experience with the interrogator.

The Spirit had not abandoned me, for the whole experience had been his work. The sense of guilt and shame I felt was rooted in my failure to put grace ahead of nature, my failure to trust primarily in God rather than in my own powers..."

From Walter J. Ciszek's book, He Leadeth me

Truth and Love

"It is necessary that each person freely accept the truth of the love of God. He is Love and Truth, and love as well as truth never imposes themselves. They knock on the door of the heart and mind, and where they enter, bring peace and joy. This is the way God reigns; this is his plan for salvation..."

Pope Benedict XVI